Dear Blizzard,
Can you please stop breadcrumbing us roleplayers and provide us with the improvements and tools that’d enhance our roleplaying experiences?
Unlike the average raider or PvPer who leaves the game once they achieve their seasonal goals, we remain steadfast through every season and expansion, no matter how lackluster. We deeply care about our characters, their stories, and the world they inhabit. We’re arguably your most loyal and passionate fans, yet we often feel overlooked and unappreciated. This open letter is a plea for recognition and the bare minimum of support: a few quality of life improvements and tools that can be implemented with far less effort than constant class rebalancing.
- Toys:
While the average player uses toys for showing off during downtime in a raid, we roleplayers use them for practical storytelling purposes. We place down objects, clutter, or alter our appearances for immersion, yet the toys only last for a couple of minutes and must be refreshed constantly. This often isn’t even an option due to ridiculously long cooldowns. Can you assume that RPers will make the best out of whatever you throw in-game and implement the toys accordingly? Take the Artist’s Easel toy, for instance. Its current animation, while charming, limits player interaction. Imagine if characters could simply sit and paint in a loop, freeing players to continue exploring the world and emoting naturally. This small change would dramatically increase the toy’s utility for roleplayers, opening up countless storytelling possibilities.
Perhaps you could make toys last until the player logs out in RP realms. I understand concerns about world-cluttering objects, but this would significantly enhance our immersion if we didn’t have to renew tents, campfires, or weapon racks every 5 minutes. We barely have time to emote in that span, and spawning a different tent during a session is immensely immersion-breaking. Changing how toys work in RP realms would be a huge improvement.
Especially during market nights, it is painful to watch shopkeepers repeatedly spawn their Romantic Loveseat as a display table. Even changing how these toys work would be a lifesaver.
By the way, we don’t even have carts or stalls as toys. I wish you had a team of analysts monitoring popular activities across RP realms to cater to our needs; for instance with display tables and market stall toys.
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Consumables:
Consumables with cosmetic effects, like the Elixir of Giant Growth, language potions, or transformation scrolls, don’t last long enough. We’re forced to spam them during roleplay, which is exhausting. I understand the economic concerns, but perhaps you could make the duration stack or build up? If I use multiple elixirs in a row, the effect should last longer without me having to keep an eye on the buff. My character shrinking in the middle of roleplay is embarrassing. Since you don’t implement height sliders, I rely on these potions to accurately represent my character’s size. Making the effects stackable in duration would be a huge time saver. -
Roleplay UI:
We need an official roleplay UI in the game. A character sheet, physical descriptions, and IC inventory are necessities for any RPG experience. TotalRoleplay 3 + Extended is a testament to the demand for these features. Even a simple version exclusive to RP realms or a toggle option (like war mode) would be immensely beneficial. It’s embarrassing that a game like WoW still relies on fan-made addons to provide essential RPG elements. Implementing an official character sheet feature for roleplayers would be a significant improvement. -
Instances:
Allow us to enter a dungeon as a full raid group! There are so many great instances that are PERFECT for certain campaigns and stories, but they’re totally useless for groups larger than 5 people. You should allow RPers to use these spaces for their stories! Same with arenas and battleground maps, there should be non-pvp versions for roleplay purposes only! -
Customization:
Although the game has richer customization options than ever, there are still many limitations. In the age of extensive drake and dracthyr customization, there’s no excuse for why a blood elf can’t have a dwarf beard or short human hair. All hairstyles, beard styles, makeup options, tattoos, and piercings should be globalized and democratized. While this is a lot of work and requires individual alterations, the effort would be worth it. -
Language Learning:
Allow us to learn languages (racial and others like Kalimag, Mogu, Eredun/Demonic) similarly to how we learn Winterpelt Furbolg. In roleplay, we often reference languages and roleplay language barriers, accents, and more. Unlocking languages on certain characters would add depth to our roleplay experiences. -
Animated Emotes:
I understand that animation is costly and not a high priority, but it is incredibly important! Why don’t we have kissing or hugging animations? Why don’t we have couple dances? Cooking, knitting, writing, reading—the list goes on. Why don’t we have animated emotes or toys that put our characters in certain poses or animations until canceled? Although it might not be a high priority, this would be a game-changer. Trust me, even non-roleplayers would love seeing their characters actually do things like sitting down to eat, sipping from their tea cups, or reading a tome.
These are some of my top concerns, along with ideas from people in my circle. Although we roleplayers are not as loud or marketable as streaming PvPers or similar groups, we do exist and deserve to be seen.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
